Other stuff

“Audit. Review. Compilation. What’s the difference” – New book now available.

by Jim Ulvog

Audit. Review. Compilation. What’s the difference? – Illustrations using a football game, buying a used car, and filling a bucket.

audit-cover

What’s the difference between getting an audit, review, or compilation from your CPA firm? This short, 29 page book will help you understand.

Three illustrations help explain the differences:

  • A football game – How does advancing to the 10-yard line compare to an audit? What would a review look like in a football game?
  • Buying a used car – How does taking the car for a test drive compare to a review?
  • Filling a bucket – How filling it up with water to three different levels illustrates the differences between three levels of service.

This is a compilation of articles at my blog, Nonprofit Update.

The book is now available at Amazon.

Now available here in other formats:

  • ePub format for your iDevices
  • PDF or text
  • Mobi for your Kindle device

Soon to be available at Barnes and Noble.

Other stuff

eBook ‘Tragedy of Fraud’ now available in multiple formats

by Jim Ulvog

Fraud has tragic effects on innocent people who didn’t commit the fraud. The person who did the deed will pay a severe price far beyond what the judge imposes. Just like a stone thrown into a pond causes ripples all across the water, so a fraud ripples out to cause all sorts of harm.

tragedy-cover

Only 99 cents.

Available in Epub for iPad, iBooks, Nook, and Sony Reader.

Also in mobi for Kindle, PDF for desktop reading, and 5 other formats.

Newest versions can be found here.

Has been available at Amazon since February.

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Internal control, Other stuff

Live example of a fraud fiasco

by Jim Ulvog

“Going to meet your Maker with the fresh scent of theft on your hands is not a good way to go…”

is how Charles Hall starts his story of a long ago fraud – Stealing While Dying.

We’ve all seen the situation where the bookkeeper does the main bookkeeping, receives the bank statements, reconciles the accounts, and is an authorized check signer.

In this situation, the most-honest-and-nicest-person-you’ll-ever-meet bookkeeper starting stealing lots of money when she became gravely ill.

His story took place in a for-profit business, but it could easily happen in any church.

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Internal control

Price cut on my newest e-book, “Tragedy of Fraud”

by Jim Ulvog

Price reduced to only $0.99, now available here.

“Tragedy of Fraud – The Ripple Effects from Fraud and the Wages Earned” describes the tragic consequences from fraud.

There are ripple effects that spread out to harm innocent bystanders. The perpetrator draws a wide range of well-deserved wages that will be paid in full.

The book looks at two fraud incidents to learn what happens after a fraud is discovered. One took place in a local megachurch and the other in the mayor’s office of a small city.

This book is a compilation of blogs posts that have been previously published at Nonprofit Update and Attestation Update. The posts have been edited slightly and reorganized for easier reading.

Major sections of the book:

  • Tragedy of Fraud – The Ripple Effects from the Embezzlement Fraud in a Local Church.
  • Wages of Fraud – Consequences from the Corruption Fraud in a Mayor’s Office.
  • Why is it Difficult to Find Fraud? – The lack of documentation inside an organization makes it even more difficult to identify a fraud scheme.
  • The Fraud Triangle – A discussion of the three sides of a fraud triangle. That’s the idea that three components need to be present for a fraud to take place – opportunity, motivation, and rationalization. Great danger is in play when all three factors are present.

The other book I have available at Amazon is Once Upon Internal Control.

Other stuff

Evaluating a used car as an illustration of the differences between compilation, review, and audit

by Jim Ulvog

(cross-posted from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

You could figure out how good a car is by looking at it from across the street.

Or you could look inside & drive it around the block.

Or you could take the car to your mechanic for a couple of hours to get it really checked out .

We can use that as an analogy of the differences between a compilation, a review, and an audit.

Stand across the street

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Other stuff

“Tragedy of Fraud” e-book now available at Amazon

by Jim Ulvog

(Cross-posted from my other blog, Attestation Update.)

“Tragedy of Fraud – The Ripple Effects from Fraud and the Wages Earned” describes the tragic consequences from fraud.

There are ripple effects that spread out to harm innocent bystanders.  The perpetrator draws a wide range of well-deserved wages that will be paid in full.

The book looks at two fraud incidents to learn what happens after a fraud is discovered. One took place in a local megachurch and the other in the mayor’s office of a small city.

The book closes with a discussion of the fraud triangle. That’s the idea that three components need to be present for a fraud to take place – opportunity, motivation, and rationalization. There are steps an organization can take to reduce those factors.

You can find the book at Amazon here.

This book is a compilation of blogs posts that have been previously published at Nonprofit Update and Attestation Update. The posts have been edited slightly and reorganized for easier reading.

Major sections of the book: (more…)

Other stuff

Level of Services Provided by a CPA – The Differences Between Compilations, Reviews, and Audits

by Jim Ulvog

(cross-posted from my other blog, Nonprofit Update.)

There are three different levels of services you could obtain from a certified public accountant.  These are referred to as compilation, review, and audit.

Financial statements are presented on the basis of some set of accounting rules. This is referred to as the financial reporting framework.

The vast majority of the time, this would be a large body of knowledge that is called generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. Imperfect in implementation though it may be, the concept is that similar transactions will be recorded by all organizations in the same way. In addition, financial statements of similar organizations will actually look similar.

If there is some unique reason to do so, the financial statements could be presented on another basis of accounting

Compilation

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Feature length Cartoons

YouTube views of cartoons increasing

by Jim Ulvog

Views on YouTube for all my cartoons have been running about 50 a week during 2012. For reasons I cannot detect, the traffic on the two main cartoons has surged.

In three weeks, there 363 viewings of part 1.  In those same three weeks, part 2 was watched 108 times.

Total views to date for part 1 are 2,030 with total views for part 2 at 385.

Each cartoon is about 8 minutes.  Here are the links:

Bank reconciliations and offering count procedures:

 [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qeibzgSemY]

Good procedures protect from false accusations:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KESsI04-XY]